The Literature and History of New Testament Times. J. Gresham Machen
The emancipation of the Church from Judaism was a slow process. The unfolding of that process is narrated in The Acts. Even after the Church was scattered abroad through Judea and Samaria, much remained to be done. Cornelius, Antioch, Paul were still in the future. Nevertheless, the death of Stephen was an important event. It was by no means the whole of the process; but it marks an epoch.
The gradual rise of persecution should be traced in class—first the fruitless arrest of Peter and John and their bold defiance; then the arrest of the apostles, the miraculous escape, the preaching in the temple, the re-arrest, the counsel of Gamaliel, the scourging; then the preaching of Stephen and the hostility of the Pharisees. The opposition of the Sadducees was comparatively without significance. The Sadducees were not Jews at heart. They might persecute the Church just because the Church was patriotically Jewish. But the Pharisees were really representative of the existing Judaism. Pharisaic persecution meant the hostility of the nation. And it implied the independence of the Church. If the disciples were nothing but Jews, why did the Jews persecute them?
In what follows, a few details will be discussed.
1. THEUDAS AND JUDAS
Judas the Galilean, mentioned by Gamaliel, Acts 5:37, appears also in Josephus. His insurrection occurred at the time of the great enrollment under Quirinius, the Syrian legate. This enrollment was different from that which brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Jesus. Luke 2:2–5. That former enrollment occurred before the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC Luke 1:5; Matt. 2:1. The enrollment to which Gamaliel referred was carried out after the deposition of Archelaus in AD 6.
With regard to Judas all is clear. But Theudas is known only from Acts 5:36. The Theudas who is mentioned in Josephus is different, for his insurrection did not occur till about AD 44, after the time of Gamaliel's speech. Gamaliel was referring to some insurrection of an earlier period. The name Theudas was common, and so were tumults and insurrections.
2. THE SEVEN
It has been questioned whether the seven men who were appointed to assist the apostles were "deacons." The title is not applied to them. The narrative does, indeed, imply that they were to "serve tables," Acts 6:2, and the Greek word here translated "serve" is the verb from which the Greek noun meaning "deacon" is derived; but the same word is also used for the "ministry [or service] of the word" in which the apostles were to continue. V. 4. The special technical use of the word "deacon" appears in the New Testament only in Phil. 1:1; I Tim. 3:8,12. Compare Rom. 16:1.
Nevertheless, though the word itself does not occur in our passage, it is perhaps not incorrect to say that the seven were "deacons." Their functions were practically those of the diaconate; their appointment, at any rate, shows that the apostles recognized the need of some such office in the Church. It is not quite clear what is meant by the expression, to "serve tables." The reference is either to tables for food, or else to the money tables of a banker. If the former interpretation be correct, then the deacons were to attend especially to the management of the common meals. Even then, however, the expression probably refers indirectly to the general administration of charity, a prominent part of the service being mentioned simply as typical of the whole.
3. THE SYNAGOGUES
The Greek word translated "Libertines" in Acts 6:9 comes from the Latin word for "freedmen." The freedmen here mentioned were probably descendants of Jews taken by Pompey as slaves to Rome. The Jewish opponents of Stephen therefore included Romans, men of eastern and middle north Africa, and men of eastern and western Asia Minor. These foreign Jews, when they settled in Jerusalem, had their own synagogues. It is doubtful how many synagogues are mentioned in our passage. Luke may mean that each of the five groups had a separate synagogue, or he may be grouping the men of Cilicia and Asia in one synagogue. The wording of the Greek perhaps rather favors the view that only two synagogues are mentioned—one consisting of Libertines and men of Cyrene and Alexandria, and the other consisting of Cilicians and Asians.
4. THE SPEECH OF STEPHEN
In defending himself, Stephen gave a summary of Hebrew history. At first sight, that summary might seem to have little bearing upon the specific charges that had been made. But the history which Stephen recited was a history of Israel. "You are destroying the divine privileges of Israel"—that was the charge. "No," said Stephen, "history shows that the true privileges of Israel are the promises of divine deliverance. To them law and temple are subordinate. From Abraham on there was a promise of deliverance from Egypt. After that deliverance another deliverance was promised. It is the one which was wrought by Jesus. Moses, God's instrument in the first deliverance, was rejected by his contemporaries. Jesus, the greater Deliverer, was rejected by you. We disciples of Jesus are the true Israelites, for we, unlike you, honor the promises of God."
Other interpretations of the speech have been proposed. For example, some find the main thought of the speech to be this: "The wanderings of the patriarchs and the long period of time which elapsed before the building of the temple show that true and acceptable worship of God is not limited to any particular place." At any rate, the speech requires study—and repays it.
What was said in the last lesson about the speeches of The Acts in general applies fully to the speech of Stephen. The very difficulties of the speech, as well as its other peculiarities, help to show that it represents a genuine tradition of what, in a unique situation, was actually said.
5. MARTYRDOM
The word "martyr" is simply the Greek word for "witness." That is the word which is translated "witness" in Acts 1:8. "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." There, of course, there is no special reference to dying for the sake of Christ. It is primarily the ordinary verbal testimony which is meant. The special meaning "martyr" is not often attached to the Greek word in the New Testament. Probably even in Acts 22:20, where the word is applied to Stephen, it is to be translated "witness" rather than "martyr."
Martyrdom, then, is only one kind of witnessing. But it is a very important kind. Men will not die for what they do not believe. When Stephen sank beneath the stones of his enemies he was preaching a powerful sermon. The very fact of his death was a witness to Christ. The manner of it was still more significant. Stephen, crying in the hour of death, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," Stephen dying with words of forgiveness on his lips, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge," was a witness indeed.
The Church can never do without that kind of witnessing. True, it may not now often appear as actual martyrdom. But bravery is needed as much as ever—bravery in business, men who will not say, "Business is business," but will do what is right even in the face of failure; bravery in politics, men to whom righteousness is more than a pose; bravery in social life, men and women who will sacrifice convention every time to principle, who, for example, will maintain the Christian Sabbath in the face of ridicule. Modern life affords plenty of opportunities for cowardice, plenty of opportunities for denying the faith through fear of men. It also affords opportunities for bravery. You can still show whether you are of the stuff that Stephen was made of—above all, you can show whether you are possessed by the same Spirit and are a servant of the same Lord.
6. THE RESULT OF THE PERSECUTION
The persecution resulted only in the spread of the gospel. Gamaliel was right. It was useless to fight against God. The disciples were in possession of an invincible power, and they knew it from the very beginning. When Peter and John returned from their first arrest, the disciples responded in a noble prayer. Acts 4:24–30. Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against Jesus, had accomplished only what God's hand and God's counsel foreordained to come to pass. So it would be also with the enemies of the Church. When the disciples had prayed, "the place was shaken wherein they were gathered together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of God with boldness." The answer to that prayer was prophetic